Frederik Høimark 

One-Minute Reel

Note that the reel does not show my inanimate work and breakdowns.

Organic Level Generator & Instancer (Environment & Tech art - Level Generation)

This is an early demo of my level generation tool, and how combined can generate even more detail in the environment.

• Context Based Material Classifier through rough grey boxing to demonstrate the simplicity of compiling a level that could generate complex geometry. Furthermore, it allows us to iterate on level composition without slowing down the team.
• Near 1:1 of grey box Interpretation to accurately match a level designer's vision seamlessly with minimum kitbashing and overdraw.
• Surface Based Grass Instancer easy to modify to match most biomes. Completely scalable for arrays of different grass models to be placed all at once. 

Thrusters (Technical Art - VFX)

I was requested to create a similar-looking thruster based on Disney's Lightyear animated movie. My approach was to dissect distinct features and keep each part modular for the look development and art direction process. It also allowed the possibility to animate how the thrusters work rather than just enabling everything all at once for a launch or orbital navigation. In the end, the thrusters became our own.

• Highly adaptable modular VFX to create highly reusable content that could be applied in any situation.
• Made with art direction and lookdev in mind to ensure the VFX would be as is, or better than envisioned.
• Easily applicable to any scene where I made an instance setup for the spaceship to be used in any animation.

Victorian Project (Environment Art & Tech Art)

In a group collaboration with my university, I was responsible for all the CG Art minus some incredibly helpful materials made by the Unreal Starter Kit. All the models have been made with Houdini and some tools I had prepared to kickstart this project in only a few weeks.

• Blockout-based proceduralism creates all the different houses with different floors, interiors, and exteriors.
• Vertex-based material selection and blending for quick systematic results for landscapes.
• Procedural modeling to quickly sculpt and edit the many curved and ornamental shapes.

Collaborative Project (Environment & Tech art - Level Generation)

In a group collaboration, within two months, I was responsible for the asset pipeline of the environment and helping other members transition from 2D art to 3D modelling. 

• Generative Landscape through rough grey boxing to demonstrate the simplicity of compiling a level that could generate complex geometry. Furthermore, it allows us to iterate on level composition without slowing down the team.
• Generative interior & exterior through simple silhouettes of buildings with markings of where entrances should be placed.
• Generate systematic material blends to kick-start material blends to give space to more creative input from other artists.

Parametric ocean water (Environment & Tech art - Shaders)

After resigning from an older project, I wanted to develop further on the water shader I had made inspired by the instructions made in GPU GEMS by Nvidia. It was also inspired by a GDC presenting Naughty Dog's water technologies in Uncharted 3. 

• Peaking Gerstner Waves were combined at different levels, amplitude and directions of the wind. The deformation is in world space. This allows the water planes to be tiled without obvious tiling repetitions.
• Water Plane Clipmaps were generated to transition between LODs. In Houdini, it is easy to edit for different levels of optimizations.
• Water Plane Flowmaps were also generated based on the level geometry exported. This allows the water to flow around geometry.

Nuke Noise & Loop Cycler (Technical Art - VFX)

Nuke noise is a Houdini implementation of a node from Nuke that makes noises relative to a Min and Max value, and does not run into value cut-offs and plateau like the noise node in Houdini. Finally, the loop cycler helped specify a midpoint of where VFX should loop. These tools are simpler than their counterparts and are for when you need something to work fast. 

• Iterative Explorimentation of tools to adapt to any task required.
• Fast implementation for cross-application features that do not require more than you to ask.
• Easy to use with little maintenance for users unfamiliar with the tool to pick up and use immediately.

Auto Rig - Polymorph (Tech Art, Tool Programming & Rigging)

During my time at DADIU (The National Academy of Digital, Interactive Entertainment), I got the time to program and fully test out my very own auto rig - Polymorph. It is intended to work on pretty much anything at any scale and it made it possible to rig up to 6 characters during the last part of the season. and I emphasize that your rig always came on time for the animators. 
 

• Locator-based attributes to curate joints and controller properties to your model
• Controller-based retargeting system to safely update rig and rebake animations or to apply motion capture for cleanup
• Modular and dietetic workflow ensuring the auto rig can work in any scenario, not just creatures, and is tweakable in the 3D viewport with ease. What you see is what you get.

Destruction System - Fracture (Tech Art, Tool Programming & VFX)

During my time at DADIU, I implemented a fracturing system that would use an artist's model and completely decimate them on three different levels; parts, chunks, and pieces. This was based on a GDC talk about Remedy's IP, Control's destruction system which included root joints and neighbors to glue the pieces together instead of just collapsing. The implementation was done in collaboration with another very talented technical artist, Aske Johansen.

• Hiearchy-based fractures make each hit feel more impactful depending on what and how you hit the target object.
• Imported Houdini Attribute to make smart use of neighboring, and hierarchy parenting.
• Houdini Simulated Decals for adding the extra depth to standard decals

UV Wrapping Tool (Tech Art & Tool Programming)

While I was working with trimsheets, one thing that bothered me a little was that Maya did not have the UV from border feature that 3Ds Max has, so I decided to make my own. It was a little more complex, being able to fetch and define texel density as well, but once it got into production with the artists, it clashed with their workflow. I then implemented it into a two-button prompt to make the most of the system with some manual user definitions in between. 

• Two-button prompt to do as many actions until specification is necessary
• Made with modularity in mind so it works in any context where you would be able to make a straight strip along an edge
• Is one of many ways to do it as during my production period, I experienced that when one way did not work, this one worked wonders where the other operations did not.

Custom Tree Generator

For the DADIU graduation game we needed a variety of different trees after the pine trees were done. The art director very specifically showed a series of trees similar to the style of Fortnite. After exploring our options with speedtree, l-systems, and SideFX Lab's tools, I decided to craft my own tree generator inspired by SideFX's tree generator. 

• Heavily art directed trees were requested by my art director who wanted a very particular look where opting for speedtree, l-systems or SideFX Lab's tools did not cut it.
• High level artistic inputs, making the intent of teach tree unique and intentional within the desired context unlike truly random tree generators. 
• Made with modularity in mind as it works on a per trunk/branch level you can just as easily edit, add or remove parts of the tree.

Geo Tiler (Tech Art - Material Art)

During my time at Attic Barrels Interactive,  I had to create materials for our game that specifically fit the style of our game. While it is possible to achieve a look inside Substance Designer, I planned with the lead artist to produce handcrafted sculpts and transform them into tillable objects without letting the artists worry about the tillable setups and requirements.

• Entirely Input-to-Output based procedural generation that generates tilables bakes of existing meticulously crafted ZBrush sculpts by artists to create a focused and controlled output fast.
• Entirely customizable procedure to ensure art direction and style are met when tiling the sculpted object
• Field-tested and great for iterative design due to the non-destructive workflow from Houdini, the art director can come at any time to request adjustments and see early previews of the result before it is even baked.

Spacesuit Rig Integrations & Multi-Directional Mirror Tool (Technical Art - Rigging & Tools Programming)

I had to use a different spacesuit than the one that came with the characters, which meant changes in proportions, pose, functionalities, and weights on a pre-existing rig without affecting existing animations. Through the posing and fitting, I made a mirroring tool that could adjust whenever a part of the character rig was inconsistently oriented. You could mirror X and Z invertedly, but maintain Y as is.

• Designed to preserve existing animations to adapt to any task required.
• Time-saving tools to combat all inconsistent rigs mitigating outsourcing headaches for riggers and animators.
• Safely extended rig with key functionalities without additional or adjustment joints.

Blood splatter and debris texture atlas animation (Tech art - VFX)

This was made to make the destruction and combat in the DADIU graduation game feel much more rewarding and visually interesting for the player to keep going with an aggressive playstyle.

• Short outbursts of liquid, are interchangeable by changing its viscosity properties and particle density.
• To be changed in style, depending on what game you are developing it for, be it realistic or stylized.
• Made with modularity in mind It is used to things other than just blood but also flying debris.

Large-scale Spaceship Crash (Technical Art - VFX)

For the shot where the ship crashes, I made the smoke trail for the thrusters and the explosion.  I also made the fire and the surface heat gathering on the ship's surface. All VFX are modular, with customizable shaders and the surface heat adapts to the fire mask with a decay over time.  This was later paired with a distortion layer based on the fire FXs

• Large-scale FX extending beyond thousands of meters.
• Adaptive communication between FX to simulate scene cohesion rather than a single solver.
• Made with art direction and lookdev in mind to ensure the VFX would be as is, or better than envisioned.